Tools of the Trade
A curated directory of the software researchers actually use - from literature discovery and reference managers to electronic lab notebooks, analysis pipelines, imaging and the new generation of AI research tools. Every entry is written by hand, and every outbound link is checked.
- 263 tools listed
- 20 categories
- 224 free or open source
36 tools in Writing
AnswerThis
AI Research Assistant with Cited Literature Reviews
Authorea
Online collaborative writing, citing, hosting of data and publishing.
BioRender
Visual Communication Tool for Modern Life Science
bioRxiv
bioRxiv is an open access preprint repository for the biological sciences
CERN Open Data
A portal that hosts several records, released as open data by the LHC experiments.
DebateGraph
DebateGraph offers a way to learn, deliberate and decide on complex issues.
Built something researchers should know about?
We add tools on reader suggestions, and we list open-source projects and one-person side projects on the same terms as funded platforms. Listing is free, there is no paid placement, and we write the entry ourselves after trying the tool.
Missing a tool?
Tell us what your lab runs on. Listing is free and we do not take payment for placement.
Request a listingHow entries are chosen
- It has to be alive. Links are verified, and tools that die or get acquired into irrelevance are retired rather than left to rot.
- Researchers have to actually use it. Adoption in real labs matters more than a polished launch page.
- Cost is stated plainly. Free, open source, freemium or paid - including when "free for academics" comes with conditions.
- No paid placement. Nobody buys their way onto this list, and there are no affiliate links.
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What is in here
The directory covers the whole research workflow: planning and funding, literature discovery, reference management, lab notebooks and inventory, analysis and computation, figures and visualisation, writing, publishing, and data sharing. Alongside the long-established tools you would expect, it tracks the AI workbenches and foundation models now reshaping how computational research gets done.